


Hellraiser: Preview Four

by Brandonatron0711



Series: Hellraiser [4]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Animal Death, Blood and Violence, Flashback, Gen, Nightmares, Triggers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-06
Updated: 2013-08-06
Packaged: 2017-12-22 14:51:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/914499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brandonatron0711/pseuds/Brandonatron0711
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following another dramatic nightmare, Ryan seeks to clear his head with a midnight walk. However, his absent-mindedness leaves him unarmed in an encounter with a monster. He sustains minor injuries but is saved and his injuries are tended to. However, the pain triggers a much worse memory of torment and darkness as he relives his first nightmare.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hellraiser: Preview Four

Ryan awoke with a scream. He was sweating heavily and his breath was erratic. His heart was beating erratically and he felt terrified. He looked around his house. Nothing out of the ordinary. No smears of blood staining the walls, no glass floor, no mysterious cavern, and Edgar was still there, totally unharmed. He sighed and buried his face in his hands. It was just another nightmare. But it felt like so much more. It felt far too real. Almost like a premonition. But the content of the dreams, the blood, the murder, the fear, it all seemed too farfetched to even be possible. Still, he’d had nightmares before, and they’d never been that real. Nothing had ever been so potent as to wake him up, screaming no less, in the middle of the night. It all felt so horrifically immersive, as if he had been plucked from his bed and dumped in some sordid alternate reality for the night. He took a deep breath and tried his best to calm his pounding heart, which was still racing. He got up from bed, got dressed and stepped outside for some fresh air, making sure not to rouse Edgar from his sleep.

It was still very dark outside, and judging by the position of the moon, it was barely later than midnight. Ryan sighed heavily, knowing how exhausted he was going to be in the day to come. The skies were clear above but there were dark clouds looming on the horizon. It never rained in AchievementCity, so the dark clouds were a very odd thing to see and held no small degree of foreboding. Ryan frowned, worried about the dark horizon. _You’re being paranoid_ , he told himself, _you’re just having nightmares_. _You’ll snap out of this little dark patch in no time and this will all seem silly_. He took a deep breath and headed down to the bridge, planning to take a brief midnight stroll around the outskirts of Achievement City. Going for a walk had always helped him calm down and collect his thoughts before.

As he made his way along the bridge, he heard a hissing noise and saw red eyes in the trees. He fumbled at his hip, trying to find the hilt of his sword to defend himself. _Shit_ , he thought, _I forgot my sword._ He began to back away slowly, but his fumbling had piqued the interest of whatever it was lurking in the foliage. It began to crawl towards him, spindly, hairy legs reaching out ominously from the leaves. A gigantic spider emerged from the brush, its numerous red eyes set aggressively on Ryan. He knew turning his back on the spider would be a death wish, but taking it head-on without a weapon could prove just as risky.

Without warning, the spider leapt at him, sending him stumbling backwards as the gargantuan arachnid snapped at him with its menacing fangs. Venom was dripping from its terrifying mandibles, Ryan helpless but to beat the side of its head. However, its sturdy exoskeleton absorbed the blows and it was essentially unfazed. Ryan managed to squeeze out a pressured cry for help as he struggled with the spider, but he doubted anyone would hear him.  
Then he heard a voice and footsteps. He struggled to look around the violently snapping mandibles that were assailing him.  
“Jesus Christ,” the voice said, “what the fuck did they build behind my house? Better take care with this, last time they built something for me it almost set my house on fire.”  
The voice sounded much the same as Ryan’s own. He saw a figure wearing a helmet with a visor and a lot of arm and leg padding, much like that of a biker.  
“Jack!” Ryan called as loud as he could. “Jack, help me!”  
The figure looked over in his direction. He was briefly taken aback as he saw Ryan’s arms and legs flailing under the carapace of the huge arachnid, then he drew a large pickaxe from his belt. The spider sensed his movement and began to twirl around, barely managing to land its eyes on Jack before the pickaxe swung downwards and buried itself into the top of its head. The spider screeched with pain as Jack yanked the blade of the pick from its devastated head and swung it again, rupturing its face for good measure. Ryan felt the limbs of the spider go limp and its mass collapsed on him with a thud. He grunted and pushed, sliding the massacred corpse of the spider off and onto the ground. A hand was offered in front of him and he took it without question.  
“What the fuck were you doing out here, man?” Jack queried worriedly. He had removed his helmet, revealing concerned brown eyes, short ginger hair and, his most prominent feature, a very large, oddly majestic beard. “And without a weapon, no less. What kind of idiot wanders around at night without a sword?”  
“I’m really sorry Jack,” Ryan answered apologetically, “it’s a miracle you got back when you did. I don’t know what came over me, man. I just woke up in the middle of the night and needed to clear my head.”  
Jack’s face fell. “Another nightmare?” he asked. “You want to talk about it?”  
Ryan laughed unconvincingly. “I appreciate the concern, buddy, but I’m fine. Nightmares never hurt anyone, I’m just a little drowsy.”  
Unsurprisingly, Jack was no less concerned than before. “Well this nightmare damn near got you killed,” he frowned.  
Ryan grimaced. “I know, I know, but it was just a dose of absent-mindedness. That’s all. I’ll get Edgar to remind me next time, okay? It won’t happen again.”  
Jack nodded, ignoring the sarcastic joke. He glanced down and took a step back. “Oh dude, your hip. Looks like it got its fangs on you when it knocked you down.”  
Ryan looked at his hip, not having noticed any pain yet. Sure enough, he was bleeding lightly and the skin looked discoloured. “Shit,” he muttered under his breath.  
“Come on,” Jack said, offering a shoulder for Ryan to lean on, “I’ll take you back to mine, I’ve got some antivenom and medical gear in my chest back home. We’ll get it fixed up in no time.”  
Ryan smiled gratefully and placed his arm over Jack’s shoulders, taking some of the weight off of his injured side, which was now throbbing slightly. Together, they hobbled back to Achievement City and into Jack’s house. Jack laid Ryan down on the bed, hung up his backpack and tools and started rummaging in one of his chests. Finding what he was looking for, he took it out and turned back to Ryan, pulling up a chair and sitting beside the bed.  
“Okay dude, this might sting for a moment but it’s better than letting the poison spread,” Jack warned him with a slight tone of sass in his voice.  
“Alright,” Ryan scowled, “Let’s get it over wi-SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK?!”  
The antivenom dripped into his wound and it burnt harshly. It was the kind of pain that he hadn’t felt before, a stinging, burning pain that was so potent that it was almost numbing. He’d only felt that pain before once. In a dream…

 _Suddenly, he was back in his house. The shadows had come back and the flaming demon was there again. He looked down. A sword was buried in the flesh of his leg. The pain was searing and he could feel his leg failing him, numbing and losing mobility._ Not again, _Ryan thought, his mind screaming with horror once again.  
_ No, no, leave me alone! _his thoughts shrieked. The demon cackled and he felt another blade pierce his flesh, this time in his right knee. Then another, and another, and another, like some form of demented acupuncture. The pain was there but Ryan could not die. He felt blades being rammed into his body over and over, the sting as some were drawn out slowly and then stabbed back in, the cruel torment completely relentless and the demon’s mocking laughter incessant. He screamed with pain and begged for release. The demon’s laughter stopped, its eyes set themselves firmly on him. Then, it opened wide its mouth, the gaping maw and endless pit of flame and darkness, and lunged at him…_

“Ryan! RYAN! Talk to me, Ryan! Are you okay?” a voice echoed faintly, gradually becoming louder. He felt his body being shaken, strong hands gripping his shoulders. Ryan opened his eyes slowly. Jack’s face was an inch from his, his eyes glaring in a half-fearful, half-angry expression. Ryan flinched, then started looking around the room frantically, panicked. He tried to sit up but felt Jack place his hand firmly on his chest, pushing him back down. Sweat was beading on his forehead and he could tell the sheets were soaked with it.  
“Jack…?” Ryan stuttered.  
“Holy shit, Ryan,” Jack sighed with relief, “you scared the shit out of me. Are you okay?’  
“A… a little fl… flustered,” he stammered. “What happened?”  
“You tell me,” Jack replied, leaning back in the chair with his arms crossed. “First I’m applying the antivenom to clear out your wound and flush the poison out of your blood, next thing I know you’ve passed out and you’re flailing like you’ve been possessed by a demon, screaming something about swords and waving your arms like crazy. It was scary, dude. I didn’t know what to do.”  
Ryan shook his head with ruefulness. “I’m sorry Jack, I don’t know what came over me. I just… the stinging pain from that antivenom, it just… I don’t…”  
Jack shushed him politely. “It’s okay, you don’t need to talk about it now. It triggered something, that much is obvious. I want to know what it was, but not tonight. You’re exhausted and still injured, and you lost a lot of blood. Your flailing got the antivenom through your system quicker because of how fast your heart was going, but it’s a miracle you didn’t die from blood loss. I had to patch you up in a dash, but you lost a lot, it’s easy to tell by the state of your face and the state of my floor.”  
Ryan looked down. Jack’s wooden floorboards beside the bed were soaked red and his arms and trousers didn’t fare much better. There was a sizable bandage plastered onto Ryan’s hip, very thick but still tinged a lightish red from the sheer amount of blood that had come from the wound.  
“Thanks, Jack, you’re a lifesaver. Literally.”  
“No need to thank me, Ryan,” Jack smiled, “What was I gonna do, let you bleed out for the sake of avoiding a few bloodstains? I don’t think so. I look after my friends better than that.”  
Ryan laughed weakly. “You sure do, buddy. I don’t think you get enough open appreciation for that amongst everyone, but I know they all respect you for it.”  
Jack grinned widely at the thought. “Alright, we’d best get you home into your own bed, purely for comfort’s sake. I’m sure Edgar’s worried sick. But I’m going to stay with you for the rest of the night, okay?”  
“Jack, I can’t let you…” Ryan began.  
“Shut up, I can’t bring myself to leave you on your own in case you go wandering again, with the condition your hip is in, you’ll need a week or two for it to heal up fully, and I’m gonna make sure you have someone keeping an eye on you each night, just in case. Besides, I’m not too tired. I’ll sleep through the day if I need to. You’re the priority right now.”  
Ryan sighed. Jack was a good guy but he was nothing if not stubborn.  
“Fine,” Ryan agreed, “Let’s go.”

Jack heaved him up from the bed, careful not to brush his injured hip against anything, and together they made their way over to Ryan’s house. Sure enough, Edgar was wide awake and looked concerned when Ryan came in. Jack waved him off until he had set Ryan down, but as soon as Ryan was seated, Edgar came up to him and nuzzled his chest, clearly glad to see him return.  
“Edgar, I missed you too, buddy,” Ryan laughed. Edgar looked up at him with a worried expression, his eyes glistening with concern.  
“Don’t worry about it, Ed,” Ryan smiled warmly, “I had a run-in with a spider but Jack here took care of it and fixed me up. I’ll be right as rain in a few days, don’t you lose sleep over it.”  
Edgar nodded his head and, sure enough, paid attention to Ryan’s words, dawdling over to the corner and collapsing immediately, snoring within moments. Ryan and Jack laughed. Edgar was certainly a worthy addition to their group.  
“Alright, enough antics,” Jack smirked. “You need your sleep. Get into bed. Don’t worry about the nightmares, if you look like you’re starting to get into one, I’ll wake you up, okay?”  
Ryan nodded begrudgingly and slipped under the covers again, making sure not to put pressure on his tender hip. Absolutely exhausted after a very tiring evening, he slipped into unconsciousness almost as quickly as Edgar had.  
For the first time in a while, with the knowledge that his best non-bovine friend was keeping a protective eye on him, he slept soundly without being hounded by dreams of blood and death.


End file.
